Written Answers Monday 11 July 2005

Scottish Executive

Justice

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes were recorded in each year from 1950 to 1990.

Cathy Jamieson: The information requested is given in the following table.

  Crimes and Offences1 Recorded by the Police in Scotland, 1950 - 1990

  

Year
Crimes
Offences
Crimes and Offences


1950 
74,640
99,068
173,708


1951 
83,008
101,748
184,756


1952 
82,282
106,486
188,768


1953 
76,866
112,274
189,140


1954 
74,974
117,948
192,922


1955 
74,773
120,979
195,752


1956 
79,751
128,772
208,523


1957 
80,231
136,165
216,396


1958 
91,983
150,817
242,800


1959 
95,672
161,126
256,798


1960 
102,617
180,038
282,655


1961 
108,920
188,297
297,217


1962 
117,824
198,599
316,423


1963 
128,399
201,987
330,386


1964 
133,654
218,704
352,358


1965 
140,141
224,260
364,401


1966 
147,749
241,511
389,260


1967 
153,213
249,217
402,430


1968 
152,242
244,151
396,393


1969 
155,970
254,128
410,098


1970 
167,223
263,813
431,036


19712
210,966
254,852
465,818


1972 
212,529
267,205
479,734


1973 
207,778
295,512
503,290


1974 
233,555
303,535
537,090


19753
281,485
293,629
575,114


1976 
317,877
280,443
598,320


1977 
363,382
277,954
641,336


1978 
334,957
305,802
640,759


1979 
346,680
327,275
673,955


1980 
364,587
360,084
724,671


1981 
408,204
336,521
744,725


1982 
435,081
327,402
762,483


1983 
445,495
351,308
796,803


1984 
471,643
334,537
806,180


1985 
457,899
338,410
796,309


1986 
458,605
358,533
817,138


1987 
472,947
376,998
849,945


1988 
457,921
385,615
843,536


1989 
478,208
408,646
886,854


1990 
518,523
423,199
941,722



  Notes:

  1. Contraventions of Scottish criminal law are divided for statistical purposes into crimes and offences. The term "crime" is generally used for the more serious criminal acts; the less serious are termed "offences", although the term "offence" may also be used in relation to serious breaches of criminal law. The distinction is made only for working purposes and the "seriousness" of the offence is generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed.

  2. 1971 data onwards has been corrected to take into account revised classification changes from 1980.

  3. Data for 1975 is incomplete due to local government reorganisation.

  It is difficult to make comparisons over a long period of time owing to changes in legislation, classification, police manpower and other social and economical changes e.g. increased use of the telephone and the requirement for people to report crimes such as housebreakings for insurance purposes. The crime figures reached their highest levels in 1991 and have generally been falling since then.

Ministerial Cars

Mr Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7217 by Mr Andy Kerr on 20 April 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of the full costs, including fuel, drivers' salaries, insurance, road tax and servicing, of providing the ministerial car service for ministerial use and how many cars there were in the pool in the last year for which figures are available.

Mr Tom McCabe: Expenditure on fuel, service and repairs, staff costs, contract hire, and the number of vehicles used by the Government Car Service (Scotland) (GCS) for 2004-05 is shown in the following table:

  

Year
Fuel Cost (£)
Service/Repairs (£)
Staff Costs (£)(1)
Private Contract Hire(3)
Number of cars


2004-05
47,298
38,641
525,451
160,661
22(2)



  Notes:

  1. Staff costs include accruing superannuation liability charges

  (ASLC) and earnings-related national insurance contributions (ERNIC).

  2. Includes one people-carrier.

  3. When demand exceeds capacity, private hire cars are engaged. The Government Car Service (Scotland) provides or arranges transport for Scottish ministers, ministers of UK government departments when in Scotland, senior officials at the Scottish Executive, and visiting dignitaries.

  All vehicles owned by the Scottish Executive have Crown exemption from road tax. Vehicle insurance policies are not taken out by the public sector.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr Andrew Welsh (Angus) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17352 by Allan Wilson on 17 June 2005 in which it was admitted that the information that it supplied to members of the public and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre is factually incorrect, what plans it has to rectify this.

Allan Wilson: The material that was placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre is an exact copy of what was sent to the correspondents and we have no plans to alter or extract anything from these. However, a copy of the subsequent letter that was sent to the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation in response to their assertion that we had provided factually incorrect information in our reply to Mr McIver, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 36996).

School Meals

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the operating expenses for school meals identified in table 4A of Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics 1998-99, what the equivalent figure was in each year since 1998-99.

Tom McCabe: The information requested is given in Table 4A of the annual Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics publications for 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2001-02 , published by the Scottish Executive. Copies are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 18128, 25640 and 29382 respectively).

  From 2002-03 onwards, in line with the Best Value Accounting Code of Practice, school meal operating costs were not recorded separately by local authorities, but were included in the general operating costs for each school sector.

School Meals

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide as detailed a breakdown as possible of the £86,565 incurred for operating expenses for school meals in 1998-99, as identified in table 4A of Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics 1998-99.

Tom McCabe: The following table provides a breakdown of school meals operating costs for 1998-99. The total figure has been revised from that published in Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics 1998-99, due to the submission of revised data from local authorities.

  

Operating Costs for School Meals, 1998-99
£000


Property Costs
1,299
 


Rates
 
6 


Rents and property insurance
 
6 


Repairs, maintenance and minor alterations
 
484 


Fixtures and fittings
 
41 


Energy costs
 
610 


Domestic supplies
 
7 


Other property costs
 
145 


Contract Costs 
73,208 
 


Supplies and Services 
8,217 
 


Loose furniture
 
118 


Provisions
 
6,256 


Other supplies and services
 
1,843 


Transport
50 
 


Administration Costs
166 
 


Printing, stationery, postage and telephone charges, advertising
 
44 


Other direct expenditure not included elsewhere
 
122 


Payments to Persons and Other Bodies
904 
 


Other accounts of the authority
 
541 


Other agencies, bodies or persons
 
363 


Total Operating Costs for School Meals 
83,844 
 



  Source: LFR 1 returns to the Scottish Executive.

Windfarms

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many objections have been received to the Clydesdale wind farm application.

Allan Wilson: The Executive has received 186 public objections to this proposal, including a petition containing 115 signatures. We are at present considering these representations together with those of the stakeholders who were consulted by us in terms of the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000.